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News (Media Awareness Project) - US MO: Column: He Gave Us a Place to Stand
Title:US MO: Column: He Gave Us a Place to Stand
Published On:2006-11-28
Source:Kansas City Star (MO)
Fetched On:2008-01-12 20:38:37
HE GAVE US A PLACE TO STAND

Economist Milton Friedman, who died recently at age 94, will be
missed. He won't be forgotten.

Friedman and British economist John Maynard Keynes were the twin
pillars of 20th century economic thought.

Keynes -- responding to the excesses stemming from the armistice ending
World War I, and the subsequent devastation of the Great Depression --
argued that government had a key role to play in managing devastating
swings in unruly economies. His viewpoint held sway for the next four
decades.

Friedman, beginning shortly after World War II and hitting a crescendo
in the 1970s, countered that free markets served as the single most
efficient way to allocate resources, effort and capital. Friedman
argued that the smaller government was, the better, and that the
Keynesian approach over time would inevitably lead to higher inflation
and unemployment.

Friedman said the most effective way to manage the economy was to
simply monitor the amount of money sloshing around the financial
system, giving rise to the monetarist school of thought emanating from
the University of Chicago. And, most compellingly, he argued that free
markets were inextricable from the success and spread of democracy.

Even better for someone who writes about money and how it makes people
behave, Friedman and Keynes offered their arguments with real pith and
passion. It's simply impossible to understand the economic history of
the last century without spending some time with them.

So today, for your consideration, I offer a few notable quotes from
the late, great Milton Friedman.

"Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief
in freedom itself."

"History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for
political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition."

"Governments never learn. Only people learn."

"Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned."

"I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any
excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible."

"I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if
people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most
of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal."

"Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without
legislation."

"Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more
urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the
government."

"The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It
was a way of enabling the free market to work."

"The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the
problem."

"The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment,
was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent
instability of the private economy."

"We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes
nonwork."

"A society that puts equality ... ahead of freedom will end up with
neither equality nor freedom."

"There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use
its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its
profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to
say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

"The great achievements of Western capitalism have redounded primarily
to the benefit of the ordinary person. These achievements have made
available to the masses conveniences and amenities that were
previously the exclusive prerogative of the rich and powerful."

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government
program."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Amen, Milton. Amen.
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